"I have sometimes thought of a month's leave, just between musters," said I, without joining in Jack's boisterous laugh.
"Leave! for what purpose?"
"A ride into Spain—say, as far as Seville; what do you think of it?"
"Seventy miles or more to help you to continue a flirtation begun in the casemates of Gibraltar. Thank you, Ramble; I would rather hold myself excused. I had a little adventure in Spain once before, and its devilish concomitants quite cured me of all taste for another; though if I had not lost this unlucky 500l. perhaps—"
"Well, why the deuce did you not let Halim Pasha and his nag alone? What did their race matter to you?"
"But lend me the telescope—what is that puff—a gun?"
"It is a smuggler running right for the harbour, pursued by a Spanish guarda costa; bang! there goes another gun from the Don."
"And right through the felucca's sail too!"
"Hollo! they will be within gunshot of us ere long," said I, springing up: "and this will be work for us. Sentry, call the gunner of the guard."
"Gunner of the guard!" reiterated the sentinel, who stood, bayonet in hand, under a sunshade, at the guard-house door.